"Get online" sounds like a project with a dozen parts. It's really four, and they go in a specific order because each one makes the next easier.

1. Google Business Profile — do this first

If someone searches "plumber near me" or "plowing Grand Island," Google shows a map with three businesses on it. Those are Google Business Profiles, and they're free.

For a local trade, this listing does more for you than a website does, because it's what appears when someone is actively looking. It shows your name, phone, hours, location or service area, photos and reviews.

You need a Google account, your business name, a phone number, and a way to verify you're real — usually a postcard, a phone call or a video. It takes a few days because of the verification, so start here and do the rest while you wait.

Full walkthrough: what a Google Business Profile is and how to get on Google.

2. One page with your details

Your Google listing has limited room. It can't say much about how you work, what you don't do, or why you're worth calling over the next name on the list. That's the job of a single page.

Content: business name, what you do in one sentence, the towns you serve, your phone number (tappable), hours, and two or three photos. That's it. See what a website should include.

Where to put it: a free service that builds it for you, or a builder at $10–$16 a month if you want your own domain. If you have no site at all, this is a half-hour job once you've written your details down.

3. A business email address

[email protected] works. [email protected] looks like a business. The difference matters most when you're quoting on a job where three other people are quoting too.

Cheapest route: forward mail from your domain to your existing Gmail, so you can send from your business address without a new mailbox. A step up is a real mailbox at $6–$8 a month.

Details: how to create a business email address.

4. Be where your customers already are

Not everywhere. Where they already are.

• Facebook — still where a lot of local recommendations happen, especially in town groups and neighborhood pages. A page with your hours and a phone number is enough; you don't have to post daily.
• Nextdoor — for genuinely local trades, a listing here gets seen by people who live on the streets you work on.
• The local hardware store's bulletin board — still works, still free.
• A referral from another trade — a plumber who knows an electrician is a distribution channel. Have cards.

Skip the rest until you have a reason. Every account is another login, another thing to keep updated, and another place that looks abandoned if you stop.

What you don't need on day one

• A logo. A clean name in bold type is fine — see do you need a logo.
• Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X. Pick one if your customers are there; skip otherwise.
• A blog. Empty blogs look worse than none.
• A booking system. Answer the phone.
• Paid ads. Prove the free stuff first.
• An "online strategy." You have a phone and a page. That is the strategy.

The order matters, and here's why

Google first, because that's where the searching happens and verification takes days.

Website second, because the Google listing needs somewhere to point and because a page answers the questions a listing can't.

Email third, because it's cheap and it makes every quote and invoice look more like a business.

Social last, because it's the most work for the least certain return, and because a Facebook page pointing at a real website is worth more than one pointing at nothing.

What it costs

Google listing: free. One page: free to about $16 a month. Email: free to $8 a month. Facebook: free. Total: somewhere between nothing and $25 a month.

Time: an afternoon for the writing, a few days of waiting for Google's verification, an hour for the rest.

That's the entire "get online" project for a one-person trade business. Anyone quoting you $3,000 for it is selling something else.